Ariel’s Hypnobabies Birth

Great story showing how Hypnobabies is beneficial for all moms, even those who end up choosing an epidural. This Mom was induced after her water breaks and birthing time didn’t start on its own after 8 hours. Mom chose to get an epidural after 10 hours on pitocin and not much progress. This allowed her to rest and have a vaginal birth.

On Monday 12/28 at 1:30 am my water broke and we were excited, knowing our overdue boy (guess date 12/19) was coming soon and would not have to be induced (we had been trying everything to get labor started for the past week). I listened to my hypnobabies and got ready for the hospital. Unfortunately, pressure waves did not start over the next 8 hours. Although at first we thought about giving it another 12 hours or so, our OB was VERY anxious about infection, especially since I am GBS positive, so at 1 pm we went to the hospital where I started antibiotics and where the on call doc said I was basically a C section waiting to happen if I did not induce NOW, birth had to be done within 24 hours of ruptured membranes (we fudged on when the water actually broke to give us more time), etc, etc, and she had just finished two sections on women who had gotten fevers, etc. Although I measured only fingertip dilated and 40 percent effaced, we were really torn but eventually made the call to start on pitocin, hoping it would do the trick (my last appt showed my cervix still long and closed). Whether this was the right call we’ll never know, but here’s what happened next. I labored on pitocin for 10 hours, and with the help of Hypnobabies got through some pretty intense pressure waves. The last 3 hours were, I admit, challenging, but with my hypnosis, husband and our doula, made it through and stayed calm and focused; by the end of nearly ten hours my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and I showed signs of being far along (vomiting, shaking, etc), so we were all hoping for good signs of progress.

BOP warning: The doc on call (new one, much better bedside manner) measured me and to our dismay, I had dilated only to 1 cm. As you can imagine, this was pretty devastating after so much work, and at that point he suggested (of course) that a C section wouldn’t be a bad idea, and that it looked like I simply wasn’t progressing. We discussed this and our doula suggested that since both baby and I were doing fine (baby’s HR was fantastic throughout and I had no fever) that we should wait, and that maybe getting an epidural would help my body relax and allow the intense contractions to do their work. Feeling I had nothing to lose at that point, and feeling like I couldn’t get through another 10 hours of pitocin contractions knowing the last 10 hadn’t done much, I agreed and although the doc wasn’t sure it would help, he was fine with letting us try it as long as we both showed continued signs of being healthy. The next hour, before the epidural was truly challenging–mostly because I had lost confidence in myself and in my body. This was the point where I stopped using hypnobabies and got a bit off track. I got the epidural and within a short time, was able to focus again on the task at hand.–END BOP

Although we had always hoped not to use pain relief, this was a good call in this situation, and I spent the next 6 hours using hypnobabies to relax and to focus on my cervix opening and allowing baby to move down. Throughout our baby was a trooper–his HR was steady during a total of 16 hours of pitocin-induced labor (which can often cause distress) and luckily I did not have any negative reactions from the epidural. I could still feel the contractions (esp as the epidural started to wear off and I didn’t want to ‘top it off’) and at 6 am the doc came back to measure me–we were all praying for some progress, and to our delight and his complete surprise, it turns out I had reached 10 cm and was ready to push!

That was the best part–although the doc warned me that first time moms can take up to 3 hours, I felt totally in control (the epi was quite light by that point, which helped) and after my first push the doula said that I’d probably be done quickly, since I was being effective. (I admit I did not use the breathing down baby technique, I tried once or twice and couldn’t figure it out, so just went with what felt effective). 45 minutes later, and with our own OB who came in for the birth, Ariel Alexander was born, weighing in at a surprising 8 lbs 15 oz (and for all those “too big baby’ warnings–I am a small gal, 5’2″ and 110 pre-pregnancy, and both my husband and I were under 7lbs at birth!–I pushed him out in under an hour with a tiny tear needing only 1 stitch). I am very happy that we were ultimately able to have a good birth, even if it was not the “perfect” one we visualized and delighted with our healthy adorable newborn.

I believe that Hypnobabies allowed me to feel confident throughout pregnancy, get through an intense labor, and regain focus after disappointing news and relax in order to have a good, uncomplicated vaginal birth in the end and that we avoided a C section, which was my primary goal in preparing for this birth and in using Hypnobabies.

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Thank you for sharing your story. I think you did just awesome. We all want to avoid epi, but I feel you made the right call to have it since you obviously would have been totally exhausted otherwise.
I will remember your story and to be flexible when my time comes in next 2-3 weeks!